Joey Pigza has a hyperactivity problem, which means he has a hard time concentrating on tasks and frequently engages in inappropriate activity. His mother and father are divorced and he lives with his mother. When at home with his mother, he takes regular medications to control his distractibility and over-activeness. He gets special help at school, and as long as he wears his medical patch and takes his medications, he is doing okay. At the end of the school year, his mother tells Joey that he is to spend six weeks at the beginning of summer vacation with his father.

Joey's mother is concerned because she is afraid that his father won't be responsible enough to monitor Joey's hyperactivity medications. She knows that Joey loves his father and she agrees that Joey should have a chance to know his father better. So off Joey goes with his little dog Pablo and his trumpet and Herb Alpert albums to stay with his father. He also has a supply of his patches and meds.

When he arrives, Joey finds out that he is staying with both his father and his grandmother. His grandmother is always grouchy and is constantly smoking cigarettes. His dad seems wired all the time and Joey thinks he hears a humming sound coming out of his body like the sound of an electric motor. Wow! How is this summer going to work out?

Joey finds out that his dad coaches a little league baseball team. Now, Joey hasn't played baseball before, but he has thrown a lot of rocks in his back yard. When he starts to play catch with his dad, his dad is amazed at how hard Joey can pitch the ball. Dad decides to recruit Joey to pitch for the little league team, which has yet to win a game. Unfortunately, Joey's dad has convinced Joey to stop taking all his hyperactivity medications and to just "take control" of his own life. Can you imagine what baseball games are like with a hyperactive kid on the pitcher's mound who has never before played baseball? All he knows how to do it throw the ball as hard as he threw the rocks. He knows nothing about hitting or fielding and can't concentrate well enough to learn.

Now, you have some idea what the book's title means. "Joey Pigza Loses Control" refers to not just Joey's daily life, but his efforts to pitch for his little league baseball team. You need to read the book to find out how it all turns out.

A boy in Wyoming depends on his dog to help
save the family farm

The boy was called Little Willie and he was ten years old. He lived with his grandfather on a small potato farm. One morning his grandfather failed to call him to get up. When Little Willie checked, he found his grandfather to be so weak he couldn't get out of bed.

Along with his big black dog named Searchlight, Little Willie ran a mile down the road to Doc Smith's house. When Doc Smith drove her buggy to the farm, she carefully examined the grandfather who was still in bed just looking up at the ceiling. She told Little Willie that she couldn't find anything wrong with his grandfather. She said that it appeared he had just "given up" and didn't want to live anymore.

Little Willie tried to get his grandfather to respond. He did get him to eat a little bit and tried to keep him entertained by playing the harmonica. No matter what he did, he still couldn't get his grandfather to get up. Little Willie knew it was time to get the crop in. So with Searchlight's help pulling the plow, he was able to dig up the potatoes. Then he found out why his grandfather had given up. There was $500 dollars in taxes due on the farm. There was no way they could come up with that much money. Everybody, including Doc Smith, insisted Little Willie sell the farm.

Each year the town held a dogsled race. It just happened that the prize for winning was $500.00. Little Willie used his money saved for college to pay the $50.00 entry fee. He just knew that Searchlight could pull a sled by herself and beat all the other dogsled teams. What he hadn't counted on was that a big mean-looking Indian named "Stone Fox" would enter the race. Stone Fox hated white people for what they had done in the past to the Indian tribes in the area. The Indian had a team of big white Samoyeds to pull his sled. Everybody expected Stone Fox to win. What chance did Little Willie have with one old black dog to pull his sled?

The race was Little Willie's only chance to save the farm and give his grandfather a reason to get up and start living again. You need to read the book to find out how it all turns out in a surprise ending.

Are boys or girls smarter at playing jokes on one another?

The boys in this story are eleven-year-old twins, Jake and Josh Hatford, their brothers, nine-year-old, Wally, and seven-year-old, Peter. The girls are the Malloy girls, Caroline and her sisters, Eddie and Beth. The Hatfield boys are always playing practical jokes on the Malloy sisters. The brothers have to be careful, however, because the girls are really good at turning the tables on the boys.

There had been a rumor for years about an unidentified creature that could be seen and heard roaming around the area. Nobody was certain what the creature looked like or even if it existed. However, there had been newspaper stories about occasional reports of sightings. The creature even had been given a name - an "abaguchie."

The Hatford boys saw an opportunity to play a good one on those bothersome Malloy sisters. They knew Caroline had an imagination that caused her sometimes to get carried away. Why not plant the idea that there was an abaguchie roaming around the neighborhood? The boys had a cassette of howling wolves that an aunt had sent them. All they had to do was play the cassette outside the Malloy home a few evenings. It wouldn't hurt to casually suggest that the sound might be the mysterious abaguchie. After all, there were newspaper accounts of such a creature. That was enough for the imaginative Caroline. She was pulled in even more when it was mentioned that there might be an abaguchie skeleton in the basement of the town's bookstore.

You need to read the story to find out who come out ahead in this contest between girls and boys. Be prepared for some laughs along the way.